Geoffrey Roberts
Research project
This project explores the history of the postwar communist peace movement. Its key components are:
(i) The individual and collective roles of the core leaders of the World Peace Council (WPC): J.D. Bernal, Isabelle Blume, Pierre Cot, Ilya Ehrenburg, Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Pietro Nenni.
(ii) The structure and functioning of the WPC as a transnational movement.
(iii) The relationship between the peace movement and Soviet foreign policy and its impact on the postwar transformation of the USSR’s identity as an international actor.
From its inception at the 1948 Wroclaw Congress of Intellectuals for Peace, the movement grew into a global network of national and local peace activists. WPC congresses attracted thousands of delegates and were supported by a dazzling array of scientists, artists and intellectuals. Its anti-nuclear petitions were signed by hundreds of millions of people. By the mid-1950s WPC policies on peace, disarmament and security had widespread support across Europe.
As a transnational movement with branches in different countries the WPC sought to influence national debates and policies but also to create and shape an international public opinion. Its national committees shared a common identity and waged joint campaigns across the globe. The WPC facilitated horizontal as well as vertical networking of peace activists. The WPC prided itself on its internationalism and transnationalism and held its multilingual meetings in different countries, not just in Europe but in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It aspired to create organic networks of peace activists as part of an embryonic global civil society.
Biography
Geoffrey Roberts is Professor of History, Dean of Graduate Studies & Deputy Registrar at the University College Cork, in the National University of Ireland. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
Geoffrey Roberts is a historian, biographer, and political commentator who has written extensively on Soviet History and Foreign Relations. Geoffrey Roberts is a recognised world authority on Stalin, the Second World War, and the history of Soviet military and foreign policy. His broader research interests include Irish history, the philosophy of history, and International Relations.
Selected publications
Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov, Random House, New York, 2012.
Molotov: Stalin's Cold Warrior, Potomac Books, Washington DC, 2012.
Stalin's Wars: From Cold War, 1939-1953, Yale University, London, 2006.
Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History, Longman, 2002.
The Soviet Union in World Politics: Coexistence, Revolution and Cold War, 1945-1991, Routledge, London, 1999.
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